The present invention involves a novel composition for use in removing cooking deposits from surfaces, particularly ovens, soiled with such deposits.
Among the most distasteful of necessary household tasks is that of cleaning an oven. Because of the deposit of grease, both fresh and baked-on and hard baked-on food spills, the job of cleaning an oven becomes all but impossible. It is necessary, however, to regularly clean an oven in order to prevent the buildup of deposits which will prevent even heat distribution and mar its appearance. In recent times several types of products have appeared on the market to aid in cleaning dirty ovens.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,829,387 there is disclosed a composition for cleaning ovens which comprises:
(1) from about 2 to 6% of a caustic material; PA0 (2) from about 55 to 93% water; PA0 (3) a solvent mixture of from about 55 to 90% of X--.phi.--(OCH.sub.2 CH.sub.2).sub.n --OH and about 45 to 10% of X--.phi.--(OCH.sub.2 --CH.sub.2).sub.p --OH where X is hydrogen or lower alkyl, n is 1 to 3 and p is n-1; PA0 (4) from 0 to 15% of an organic solvent; and PA0 (5) at least abut 0.2% of a water soluble, alkali stable thickener. PA0 (a) from 7 to 10 percent of an alkali metal hydroxide; PA0 (b) a solvent system for the alkali metal hydroxide which comprises: PA0 (c) an alkali compatible thickener which, when present in adequate quantity, will cause the composition to have a resting viscosity of from about 1,000 to about 5,000 centipoise at room temperature, PA0 (d) the balance is water.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,335,092 discloses a composition for cleaning ovens and other surfaces having burnt-on deposits of soil, which composition comprises water and an alkali metal hydroxide in an aerosol container containing a propellant. In a preferred embodiment this formulation also contains a polyhydric alcohol as humectant, an anionic, cationic or nonionic surfactant and a "catalyst" selected from the group of furfuryl alcohol, hydrofurfuryl alcohol or a mixture thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,157,921 discloses a formulation for cleaning ovens which is a water based thixotropic composition and contains from 1 to 7% of an alkali, a first thickener, a surfactant, a humectant, an organic solvent and a second thickener comprising a thixotropic emulsion of a copolymer of acrylic acid and ethylene.